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Too many people are still doing crunches to try and get a flat stomach and six pack abs. The truth, however, is that those crunches will not get you the results you want.

There are many skeptics and die-hard crunch addicts out there, so below I’m going to give you 7 reasons why you never need to do crunches or sit-ups again.

1) Crunches aren’t working for you now, and didn’t in the past, so why would they work in the future? It’s time to give them up for good.

You know the old saying about insanity? It’s doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results.

Time to change it up!

2) Crunches are most dangerous when they are most effective.

When you are overweight, there can be a lot of resistance on the abs when you do crunches – and technically that is good…

HOWEVER, because your ab and low back muscles are weak, that’s when you use bad form and end up with a pain-in-the-neck or low back pain from crunches.

So even though crunches can work your abs as a beginner, they end up causing more harm than good.

3) On the other hand, crunches get LESS effective as you get leaner and fitter, because there is less resistance on the muscle and you’re now too strong to get anything out of crunches.

Here’s a dramatic demonstration of what I mean.

Take your left arm and extend it out to your side. Now clench your fist and do 20 biceps curls.
Now tell me, do you really think that will “work your biceps” and make them lean and sexy? Of course not!

So why would the same high-rep method of crunches work for your abs? It won’t, of course.

4) A couple of years ago, Men’s Health magazine made a big deal about a research study proving you would need to do 20,000 crunches to burn 1 pound of belly fat. Twenty thousand!

Even a “crunch fanatic” would need a few days to do 20,000 crunches. The bottom line is that ab crunches are a HUGE waste of time when you are trying to lose belly fat.

5) Even those lean, mixed martial artist guys don’t do crunches.

On the weekend, I was reading an interview with the trainer of world champion fighter, Georges St. Pierre, and the trainer explained how they don’t do crunches, but instead do anti-rotation and extension exercises for the abs.

6) Interval training works your abs harder than crunches.

Whether it’s sprints or kettlebell swings, your abs will shape up faster with interval training than they will with crunches. Guaranteed.

7) Crunches don’t make your abs “pop out”.

Unfortunately, even if you lose your belly fat, you still won’t get that “pop out” look in your abdominal area. Crunches will never do that, but fortunately, if you do use the correct exercises, your abs will be popping out rather easily.

So there are 7 reasons to stop wasting your time on ineffective and potentially injury-inducing crunches.

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Today, you’re going to discover the six-pack abs approved abdominal exercise substitution list AND 1 exercise you should never do.

Please print this exercise substitution list out and email it to your friends. Heck, you could even post it at your gym.

HERE WE GO – starting with the 1 exercise NEVER to do…

Now yesterday I told you about how I saw a trainer put his client through a BACK-DESTROYING exercise, and here’s what it was:

The exercise was weighted Stability Ball Crunches – but there were not normal crunches on the ball that you see people do. No way.

You see, not only did the client do a full-on sit-up motion, but she kept going – violently – into a total body flexion movement that ended with her almost putting her head between her knees.

But doing any type of spinal flexion can be harmful to your low back because this will compress the disks in your spine.

In fact, Dr. Stuart McGill, the world’s expert on low-back injuries and abdominal training, said in a recent New York Times article, “…no sit-ups, they place devastating loads on the disks.”

The disks in your spine are the same disks that get herniated in low back injury. And moves like sit-ups essentially CRUSH the disks between the bones in your spine, causing terrible pain and nerve damage.

So STOP doing crunches and sit-ups!

Fortunately, you can still get six-pack abs and a flat, sexy stomach by using back-friendly ab exercises instead.

Now let’s take a look at how we can make some of these back-friendly ab exercises even harder for your abs:

1. How to increase the difficulty of the Plank

First of all, before you move on from the plank, you have to master it.

Dr. McGill says that we should all be able to do a plank for 2 minutes straight.

Now I’ll be honest, I let myself go on this exercise last summer, and not surprisingly, it was probably one of the reasons I had back pain.

At one point, I was only able to do a strict plank for 75 seconds, but I’ve worked my way back up over 135 seconds, and now my back pain is gone.

You can also do pushup-planks, as those will help prepare you for pushups if you are a beginner.

Eventually you will graduate to the Stability Ball Plank, which is 30% harder for your abs than regular planks.

2. Harder versions of the Side Plank

Advanced versions include the Side Plank with Leg Raise and Side Plank with DB Lateral Raise (allowing you to train your shoulders at the same time). Dr. McGill adds that we should be able to do aside plank for 90 seconds straight.

3. Mountain Climbers substitutions

You can use the Spiderman Climb exercise as a replacement, and this is excellent for lower-body and hip mobility.

A harder version of mountain climbers is the Cross-Body Mountain Climber, and you can also do mountain climbers with your hands on the ball or with your hands on the floor and feet on the ball.

One of my favorite advanced versions is the “Hands on the Floor, Feet on the Ball Cross-body Mountain Climber” or even the “EXTREME X-Body Mountain Climber”.

Stability Ball NOTE

If you don’t have a ball, you need to get one. They are cheap, and I’m not asking you to do any dangerous circus tricks on them!

But if you don’t have a ball, you can replace the Stability Ball Plank with the Mountain Climber exercise, but it will not be as difficult.

4. How to increase the difficulty of the Stability Ball Jackknife

Eventually you’ll progress to the Stability Ball Pike. And another way to do this exercise is using the TRX straps. That is one of the exercises that gets improved by the TRX. Very effective movement. But even with the ball you can step up your training by using this exercise.

5. The Stability Ball Pike

This is another exercise improved by using the TRX, as well as a cool toy I bought called the Power Wheel. The key to the exercise is raising your hips up as high as possible, and again, using the Power Wheel or TRX allows you to do that better.

6. Alternatives for the Stability Ball Rollout

If you are new to this exercise, you can use a modified Roll-out that is easier.

Plus, you can substitute an ab wheel in place of the ball or you can even use the TRX in a similar type of movement. It works because you are fighting the extension of your torso.

Stretch your abs on the way out, and contract your abs to return to the starting position. This movement will leave your abs quite sore if it is a new exercise for you!

7. Additional Advanced Abs Exercises

Once you’ve dominated all of these Stability Ball exercises, you can move to traditional advanced ab exercises of of Hanging Knee Ups and Hanging Leg Raises.

However, you should only do these exercises if you can fully ELIMINATE momentum from the exercise. Do NOT swing your hips or rock back and forth.

8. Pushups That Workout Your Abs

You should also understand that a LOT of traditional exercises work your abs and slight variations of traditional moves can work your abs very hard.

For example, some of the best pushups for abs include:

* Elevated Pushups

* T-Pushup

* Spiderman Pushups

* Decline Spiderman Pushups

You’ll get all of these in six pack abs home workouts, of course.

9. Pulling Exercises that work your abs

Back in the day, I trained a fit woman who had never been asked to do a chin-up by her previous trainers. So I had her do 2-3 sets of 3-5 repetitions.

She came back the next session and couldn’t believe how sore her abs were from this exercise. So again, you will get a lot of ab work from traditional movements. In addition to the chin-up, here are my favorite “total body pulling muscle ab exercises”.

* DB Renegade Row

* Pullups

* Chinups/Pullups with kneeups

* Spiderman Pullups

Use those to make your workouts more efficient.

10. Shoulder/Arm Exercises

YES, you can use shoulder and arm exercises to work your abs. Any time you do a standing exercise, you’ll need to brace your abs HARD in order to maintain a stiff torso. That works your abs as hard as planks and side planks.

Plus, in the triceps extension exercise, you are stretching your abs as you lower the weight and contracting your abs as you contract your triceps to return the dumbbells or bar to the start position. I’ve had super-sore abs just from doing triceps!

So here are my favorite upper body exercises for abs:

* 1-Arm Press

* 1-Arm Curl

* DB Triceps Extension

Hope you enjoyed that massive list of ab exercise substitutions!

Just say NO to crunches!

Craig Ballantyne is a Certified Strength & Conditioning Specialist and writes for Men’s Health and Oxygen magazines and will help you burn fat without long, slow cardio sessions or fancy equipment.

Discover the most effective home abs workouts to build ripped six pack abs in less workout time than ever before.

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Hope you’ve been progressing well with the bodyweight challenge workouts?

Next up for you is another great video workout to challenge you even more…

In this video Fitness Expert Craig Ballantyne shows you how to lose fat and gain muscle in the bodyweight 500 challenge.

You’ll do 500 bodyweight repetition exercises back-to-back with as little rest as possible until you have finished the workout.

Here’s the video you need to watch…

Enjoy :)
Nigel

This is the ultimate challenge where you will perform 500 bodyweight repetitions in the BW 500 workout challenge.

Starting out with 50 prisoner squats, you want to get in a squat position and place your hands behind your head. Be sure to keep your elbows back as this will force your upper back to work a little more in this exercise.

Immediately following the prisoner squats, you are going to go into 50 push-ups. The good thing about this particular exercise is that you can split these up however you like. For example, you can do 10 repetitions five times or 25 repetitions two times.

Jumps is the next exercise from the Bodyweight 500 challenge you’ll do. This time you are going to do 25 repetitions. Be sure in this exercise that you brace your body for the landing so as to reduce the impact on your body. So, once you come down into the regular squat position, you’ll jump right back up in the air, arms extended.

After the jumps, you are going to move into 25 leg curl repetitions. This is a surprisingly tough exercise, especially after the jumps and squats. To begin, lie on the floor, with your feet up on the stability ball, bridge your hips up in the air, and contract your hamstrings to bring the ball into your body and then back out.

In to the next exercise, you’ll perform 50 stability ball jackknives. So place your elbows on a bench, feet on the stability ball, keeping your body in a straight line, bring your knees to your chest and then back out.

Once you’ve completed the jackknives, you’ll do 50 step-ups. Do 25 for one leg, making sure to keep your foot up on the bench at all times, and then switch over to the other leg. Also, be sure to not stand too close to the bench as this focuses more attention on the quadriceps, rather than the glutes.

So now that you’ve finished the step-ups, you’re half way to completing the Bodyweight 500 Challenge in terms of repetitions. Now, you are going to do 25 pull-ups. This is where things are going to slow down for a lot of people. If you cannot do pull-ups, then you can do the bodyweight inverted rows instead.

Next, you’ll move on to 50 lunges, alternating sides with each lunge counting as a repetition. Be sure in this exercise to keep your back straight. After the lunges, you will perform 50 close-grip push-ups where your triceps will definitely be feeling the burn after you’ve finished all of the repetitions.

To finish off the Bodyweight 500 you have a very difficult 3 exercise combination. To start out, you will do 50 bodyweight inverted rows. More than likely, you will need to break up the 50 repetitions. For this exercise, use an overhand grip and bring your chest up to the bar and keep your shoulder blades back.

Next you’re going to move into 50 bodyweight squats, keeping your hands out in front of you for balance.

At this point, your arms are going to be tired and your body fatigued, but the ultimate Bodyweight 500 Challenge ends with 25 underhand grip chin-ups. Again you can break these 25 up into however many chunks of repetitions that you need to.

So that’s it for the Bodyweight 500. When I first did this Challenge I managed it in 27 minutes. Be sure to make the time limits of the previous workout before moving on to the next challenge. Good luck and have fun!

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If you’ve been doing well great another great video workout to challenge you even more…

In this video Fitness Expert Craig Ballantyne shows you how to lose fat and gain muscle in the bodyweight 350 challenge.

You’ll do 12 more bodyweight exercises back-to-back with as little rest as possible until you have finished the workout.

Here’s the video you need to watch…

Enjoy :)
Nigel

This is the Bodyweight 350 Challenge which means you’ll do 350 repetitions in back-to-back-to-back fashion with as little rest as possible.

To start out you’ll begin with Prisoner Squats for 45 reps. So, place your hands behind your head and keep your elbows back. Next, push your hips back and squat down and then back up.

Next is 40 Push-ups. Break these up into blocks if you need to, but make sure you get through them all before going on to the next exercise.

Immediately following the push-ups will be 20 Jumps. Be sure to jump right back up as soon as you land.

From there you’ll go into 20 stability ball Leg Curls. So, with your heels on the ball and your hips bridged up in the air, curl the ball in and then back out. Be sure to keep your body in a straight line and your hips bridged up at all times.

After the leg curls, go immediately into 20 stability ball Jackknives. Place your elbows on a bench and your feet on a ball. Next, brace your abs and bring your knees into your chest and then back out. Make sure your body is in a straight line at all times.

Once you’ve completed all the jackknives, you’ll then do 40 Step-ups (20 per side). So, with one foot up on the bench, use your lead leg to drive up and then slowly lower back down. Be sure to keep your lead foot up on the bench at all times. Do all reps for one side and then switch sides.

Okay, you’ve now completed 185 reps and you’re more than half way there. Next up is 10 Pull-ups. With an overhand grip and slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, start from a dead hang position and pull your chest up to the bar and then slowly lower back down. (If you can’t do pull-ups, then you can do bodyweight rows instead)

Next up is 40 Lunges, 20 per side, alternating sides followed by 40 Close-Grip Push-ups.

After your push-ups, you’ll do 20 bodyweight Rows using an overhand grip that is slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Next, row your chest up to the bar, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top position.

Once you’ve finished the rows go right into 40 bodyweight squats and then finish off with 15 Chin-ups. For the chin-ups, grab the bar with an underhand grip and from a dead hang position, pull your chest up to the bar and slowly lower down.

If you can finish this workout in 30 minutes then you’re ready to move on to the Bodyweight 500.

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In this video Fitness Expert Craig Ballantyne shows you how to lose fat and gain muscle in the bodyweight 250 challenge.

You’ll do 12 different bodyweight exercises back-to-back with as little rest as possible until you have finished the workout.

Here’s the video you need to watch…

Enjoy :)
Nigel

This is the Bodyweight 250 Challenge, meaning you will do 250 repetitions of varying bodyweight exercises done back-to-back-to-back with as little rest as possible.

You may, however, need to break up an exercise into blocks in order to get through it. Just be sure to finish all the reps before moving on to the next exercise.

To start out this bodyweight workout, you’ll begin with either 30 Rope Jumps or 30 Jumping Jacks. For the jumping jacks, stay on the balls of your feet to really get the explosive lift and keep your hands straight up over your head.

After that you will move into 20 Close-Grip Push-ups. In this exercise, keep your elbows tucked into your sides.

Immediately following the push-ups will be 10 Jumps. Be sure to jump right back up as soon as you land.

After the jumps you will complete 10 Pull-ups. So, with an overhand grip and slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, start from a dead hang position and pull your chest up to the bar and then slowly lower back down.

The next exercise in the Bodyweight 250 is 40 bodyweight Squats. Place your arms straight out in front, push your hips back and squat down and up.

From the squats, go right into 25 regular Push-ups.

Next up in this bodyweight workout is 20 Walking Lunges (10 per side).

You’ll follow the lunges with an upper body exercise known as Inverted Rows. In this exercise you’ll do 15 underhanded rows. So, place the bar at hip height, grab an underhand grip that is shoulder-width apart and then row your chest up to the bar, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top position.

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Hey, as we approach the holidays I would like wish you a Merry Christmas and give you another great video workout…

In this video Fitness Expert Craig Ballantyne shows you how to lose fat and gain muscle in the bodyweight 200 challenge.

You will be doing 12 different bodyweight exercises, going straight from one to the next one until you have finished the workout.

Here’s the video you need to watch…

Have fun! :)
Nigel

If you passed the time requirement for the Bodyweight 100, then you’re ready to take on the Bodyweight 200.

To start out, you’ll do Prisoner Squats for 45 reps. So, place your hands behind your head and keep your elbows back. Next, push your hips back and squat down and then back up.

Move immediately into 30 Push-ups. Break these up into blocks if you need to, but make sure you get through them all before going on to the next exercise.

From there you will do 10 Jumps. Be sure to jump right back up as soon as you land.

After finishing all your jumps go into 10 stability ball Leg Curls. So, with your heels on the ball and your hips bridged up in the air, curl the ball in and then back out. Be sure to keep your body in a straight line and your hips bridged up at all times.

Once you’ve finished the leg curls, go immediately into 10 stability ball Jackknives. Place your elbows on a bench and your feet on a ball. Next, brace your abs and bring your knees into your chest and then back out. Make sure your body is in a straight line at all times.

Next up in this Bodyweight challenge is 20 Step-ups (10 per side). So, with one foot up on the bench, use your lead leg to drive up and then slowly lower back down. Be sure to keep your lead foot up on the bench at all times. Do all reps for one side and then switch sides.

Okay, back to the upper body, this time with 5 Pull-ups. With an overhand grip and slightly wider than shoulder-width apart, start from a dead hang position and pull your chest up to the bar and then slowly lower back down. If you need to do these one at a time in order to get through them all, that is finejust make sure you do all of them. (If you can’t do pull-ups, then you can do bodyweight rows instead)

Next up is 30 Forward Lunges, 15 per side, alternating sides, followed by 20 Close-Grip Push-ups.

After your push-ups, you’ll do 15 bodyweight Rows using an overhand grip that is slightly wider than shoulder-width apart. Next, row your chest up to the bar, squeezing your shoulder blades together at the top position.

Once you’ve finished the rows go right into 15 bodyweight squats and then finish off with 5 Chin-ups. For the chin-ups, grab the bar with an underhand grip and from a dead hang position, pull your chest up to the bar and slowly lower down.

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I have another great video workout for you…

In this video Fitness Expert Craig Ballantyne will outline the bodyweight 100 challenge

Here’s the video you need to watch…

Enjoy :)
Nigel

There are four weekend challenges as part of the Bodyweight 500 workout program. Each week you will do a Bodyweight challenge and if you finish under the allotted time, then you graduate into the next week’s challenge.

This video will outline the Bodyweight 100 challenge.

To start, you will perform 20 prisoner squats, maintaining good form by keeping your elbows back and shoulders blades together.

Immediately following the squats, go directly into 20 push ups. If you cannot do 20 repetitions straight, then you can break it up however you desire, or do as many as you can and take a rest.

Next, you will do 10 jumps.

After the jumps, you will complete 10 repetitions of the inverted row, using an overhand grip.

Then immediately go into 20 lunges, alternating sides.

Once you’ve done all the repetitions for the lunges, move on to 15 closed- grip push-ups. For this exercise you want to place your hands shoulder- width apart and your elbows tucked into your sides. Again, if you can’t do 15 in a row, then you might do 5, then 5, then 5.

To finish off you will do either 5 chin-ups or 5 more inverted rows for a total of 100 repetitions.

Now if you don’t make the cut-off time for the Bodyweight 100, then you will repeat this challenge the following week. However, if you do manage to beat the time, then the next week you will move up to the Bodyweight 200.

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Here is another episode in diet vs. exercise. Today in the diet corner we once again have Brad Pilon, this time he will be snacking on 2 espresso brownies each weighing in at around 300 calories and he’ll wash that down with a 700 calorie Starbucks frappacino.

Representing the exercise corner, I’m going to perform a series of 1-armed kettlebell swings with a 35 pound kettlebell.

As Pilon gulps down the frappacino, I am working very hard at a pace neither I nor any other individuals in the gym would typically go at. The point here is that individuals can mindlessly consume calories before and after meals and it not even register with them.

Now that Brad has finished off both of his snacks and consumed nearly 1400 calories, I have completed 60 snatches of the KB swings and burned about 50 calories. Although the kettlebell swings did burn a lot of calories, in a short amount of time, it pales in comparison to the calories Pilon took in.

The results speak for themselves and t is very apparent that diet once again wins the battle in diet vs. exercise. This is precisely why individuals who go to the gym and work really hard for an hour are not going to burn fat if they are consuming so many calories mindlessly. You just can’t out train a bad diet.

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The second instalment of diet vs. exercise where Craig Ballantyne and John take each other on in the next challenge.

Today, in this contest, Craig Ballantyne is going to be on the stair master.

While John is going to consume a burger, fries and a pop in those 4 minutes, while Craig is going to see how many calories he can burn off in that same amount of time.

While Craig burned only 59 calories in 4 minutes, John consumed approximately 1100 total calories.

In Round Number 2, Diet WINS again. Just showing that you can’t out train a bad diet no matter how hard you work or how much cardio you do you can’t burn as many calories as you can consume in the same amount of time. It would take about an hour and a half to burn that many calories on the stair master.

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